Throw Momma from the Train (1987) Front Cover Actor Danny DeVito Owen Lift Billy Crystal Larry Donner Anne Ramsey Momma Kim Greist Beth Kate Mulgrew Margaret, Larry's Ex-Wife Annie Ross Mrs. Hazeltine Branford Marsalis Lester Rob Reiner Joel Bruce Kirby Detective DeBenedetto Oprah Winfrey Herself Movie Details Genre Comedy Director Danny DeVito Studio Orion Language English Audience Rating PG-13 (Parental Guidance Suggested) Running Time 88 mins Country USA Color Color Plot The "exchange murders" plot gambit, played with utter solemnity in Hitchcock's Strangers on a Train , is used as the launching pad for raucous laughter in Throw Momma From the Train . Director/star Danny DeVito plays a middle-aged bachelor, totally dominated by his gorgon mother, played with hilarious ferocity by Anne Ramsey . Billy Crystal co-stars as a creative-writing professor, saddled with a vituperative, thoroughly despicable ex-wife ( Kate Mulgrew ). Signing up for Crystal's writing course, DeVito has trouble at first with character development and construction in his stories. Crystal recommends that DeVito watch a screening of Strangers on a Train , which he considered a model of tight, concise storytelling. DeVito is so entranced by the film that he decides to emulate Strangers star Robert Walker . That is, DeVito wants Crystal to bump off his mother, in exchange for DeVito's murder of Mulgrew. Without being asked, DeVito does away with Mulgrew (or so it seems), then hounds Crystal to the point of killing Ramsey. This being a comedy, the actual consequences of the swap-murder plot aren't nearly as calamitous as in the Hitchcock film. Cinematographer Barry Sonnenfield would apply the "black humor" lessons learned in Throw Momma From the Train for his own directorial debut, The Addams Family (1991). — Hal Erickson Personal Details Seen It Yes Index 15 In Collection Yes Product Details Format DVD Region Region 1 UPC 027616861023 Release Date 2001 Nr of Disks/Tapes 1 Extra Features Color Closed-captioned Widescreen